There was a question below in regards to the Fast Company profile of 23andMe and what they’re trying to do. A major ethical issue brought up is whether it is acceptable to type children and disclose possible disease risk later on in life. As an extreme case, what if you find out that your child is going to develop a life threatening disease by the time they’re 40? My own perspective as a parent is that I’d like to know, and I’d probably want to tell my child as soon as I think they can handle it. The reason is simple: you base your life decisions on various aspects of life expectancy. People put things off, or forgo consumption, all the time.

I’d do the same thing if it were my child. At the very least, they could plan around it – and there might be stuff they can do to ameliorate it (like a woman who knows that she’s almost certainly going to get breast cancer in middle age choosing to get a mastectomy in advance).

https://delicious.com/robertford Robert Ford

you did well humoring that woman. kinda sounded like someone’s mom asking questions: “You’re getting them *all* tested…but WHY??”

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Gene Expression

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About Razib Khan

I have degrees in biology and biochemistry, a passion for genetics, history, and philosophy, and shrimp is my favorite food. In relation to nationality I'm a American Northwesterner, in politics I'm a reactionary, and as for religion I have none (I'm an atheist). If you want to know more, see the links at http://www.razib.com